The Verdict
DOS PALILLOS holds a Michelin star on Carrer d'Elisabets in El Raval for Albert Raurich's Asian tapas counter whose specific identity is built on the application of the elBulli technical vocabulary to the Japanese, Chinese, and Southeast Asian culinary traditions that Raurich studied directly through extended stays in Japan and across Asia. The specific counter format whose fourteen seats communicate the intimacy required by the precision of the preparations; the Asian small plates whose technical execution communicates genuine knowledge of what the specific traditions require applied through the formal culinary intelligence of a chef whose training at the world's most technically accomplished restaurant provides the foundation; and the specific Barcelona context that makes the Asian culinary traditions feel simultaneously foreign and entirely at home in the city whose culinary cosmopolitanism the El Raval neighbourhood most fully embodies.
The Asian tapas menu at Dos Palillos reflects Raurich's specific cultural engagement with the Asian culinary traditions: the Japanese preparations whose specific technique communicates genuine knowledge of the specific traditions studied through direct experience; the Chinese preparations whose regional specificity communicates knowledge of the Chinese culinary geography that goes beyond the Cantonese-dominant Chinese restaurant culture; and the specific Southeast Asian preparations whose herb and spice compositions communicate genuine knowledge of the specific traditions whose flavour philosophy is most different from the European culinary heritage.
One Michelin star in El Raval for the Asian tapas counter that communicates the most original available synthesis between the Barcelona tapas culture and the Asian culinary traditions: the result of a chef whose elBulli training and whose personal Asian culinary obsession have produced something available nowhere else in Europe.
Why It Works for Solo Dining
The Dos Palillos counter - fourteen seats, Albert Raurich's Asian tapas sequence, the El Raval neighbourhood whose cosmopolitanism amplifies the Asian culinary traditions' Barcelona presence - is Barcelona solo dining culture at the level of the most intellectually original available expression of the city's culinary cosmopolitanism.
Also in Barcelona
Explore the full Barcelona restaurant guide. See our Impress Clients, First Date, and Close a Deal occasion guides for curated picks across Asia.